Shakespeare (Richard III. Act. i. Sc. ii.). Glo.  “Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.” Anne.  “Would they were basilisks to strike thee dead.” Compare Bacon (De Augmentis, VII. cap. ii):  “The fable goes of the basilisk, that if he see you first, you die for it, but if you see him first, he dies.”  Bacon refers to Pliny (Nat. Hist. viii. 33).